Not at War with Islam

Not at War with Islam

Richard LoganFebruary 20, 2015November 22, 2016

As the President says, we are not at war with Islam. Fortunately, I think most Americans agree with him. I am also OK with avoiding using the adjective “Islamic” with the word “terrorists”. “Islamic” refers to an entire faith, just like “Christian” does. So using the term “Islamic terrorism” is equivalent to calling the KKK “Christian terrorists” as if they represented Christianity generally. Hopefully, they did not. Although they still professed to be Protestant Christians. However, the term “IslamIST terrorism” is perfectly appropriate in my mind because it captures the true-believer ideological mindset of terrorists from the Muslim world and does not reference an entire faith. Now, a big HOWEVER: The President also said that “young people are taught to hate”. So, who teaches this hate? In every case, it is Muslim Religious Fundamentalists who teach hatred of Jews, Christians, the West, etc. (And so it often is as far as Christian and Jewish Fundamentalists teaching young Christians and Jews to hate.) So, we cannot sidestep the religious question entirely, and it is naive to do so. One other point; It is manifestly NOT primarily poverty that is a key factor in the burgeoning Islamist terrorist movements. That is a red herring, and I could speak to it at length. But it has to do with a pervading love-hate relationship with things Western, deep feelings of humiliation, dislocation, and the like. Many Islamist leaders are far from poor.